Hanoi(VNS/VNA) - Although many forecasts said that inflationwould be controlled at less than 4 percent this year, economistsrecommended it was still important to pay attention to inflationary pressures.

A representative of the Price Management Department under the Ministry ofFinance said that in addition to the impact of developments in the worldmarket, the pressure to increase domestic prices also came from the continuedprice adjustments of some public services according to the market roadmap.

In the context of many uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasdifficult for the aggregate demand of the economy to recover, said therepresentative.

In particular, the business situation in some areas such as accommodation,tourism, entertainment and aviation was forecasted to face many difficulties,therefore, l the price of essential goods was not expected to change.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, director of the Price Management Department, said that thedepartment had built and set up a price management scenario for this year,closely following the target of controlling inflation below four per cent ofthe National Assembly.

It was difficult to predict prices of commodities this year, so the PriceManagement Department would continue to work closely with ministries, agenciesand localities to drastically and effectively implement the public management,administration and price stabilisation under market mechanisms to controlinflation according to set targets, said Tuan.

At the same time, it would continue to implement the market price roadmap forpublic services and essential goods.

The leader of the Price Management Department also said they wouldproactively forecast, calculate and build scenarios to control prices ofessential commodities this year according to the market roadmap to ensureinflation control; increase inspections; promote communication and publicity ofprice information, to control inflation; limit false information, causingconfusion for consumers and market instability.

Economist Can Van Luc said this year had a number of factors that couldsignificantly push up inflationary pressures.

The first was the strong recovery of the global economy in general and of Vietnamin particular on this year's low growth. When the economy recovered, the demandfor goods and services would increase, thereby pushing up the price.

In addition, the amount of money that countries and central banks pumped out toprevent the pandemic, support major economic recovery, or continue to loosenmonetary policies, and reduce interest rates would have a stronger impactnext year, making global inflation increase.

In addition, forecasts all showed that prices of basic commodities, includingoil prices, continue to increase again, although the increase was not large, itstill created additional pressure.

Meanwhile, the domestic roadmap to increase the prices of some goods andservices managed by the State would also affect the consumer price index.

“Inflationary pressure will be significantly higher this year. However, weforecast inflation will remain under control at less than four per cent, specificallyin the range of 3.7-3.9 percent, which means we also do not worry thatinflation will emerge again," Luc told vov.vn onlinenewspaper.

He recommended coordination between fiscal and monetary policy, including pricecontrol. Besides, it is necessary to consider delaying the roadmap forincreasing prices of some goods managed by the State if the inflationarypressure is greater.

In the short term, in order to keep the market price from strong fluctuationsin the first month of the year, the peak month before the Lunar New Year, itwas necessary to strongly engage ministries, branches and localities inmanagement and price stabilisation, especially for essential goods, hesaid./.